The present invention relates generally to electronic computer systems and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing visual indications of the states of a plurality of software processes located in various instruments of a distributed computer system.
A software process is a software program in execution. Software processes can be idle or running and can be located in many different instruments or workstations of a distributed system. An operator can assign many software processes in a distributed system to work together to perform a task. The task can often be divided into many sub-tasks performed by various ones of the software processes. Due to the complexities of the sub-tasks or insufficient speed of the instruments or conflicting demands from other operators on the instruments, some sub-tasks might take a long time to finish. If the states of the software processes are known, then the operator can determine the conditions of the sub-tasks, find out where any bottleneck is and take appropriate action for the system to perform the task more efficiently.
To determine the state of a software process, the operator typically has to log onto the instrument hosting the software process and execute various commands. If the operator needs to find out the states of many software processes located in different instruments, the operator has to log onto and execute commands in each of the many instruments hosting the software processes. After the operator has determined the state of one software process, that state may change while the operator is busy finding the state of another software process. This may give a wrong picture of the states of the various software processes.
In monitoring the states of some of the software processes, sometimes the operator needs to know more than just whether the software processes are busy or idle; in certain cases, the operator also needs to find out the speed and the efficiency of the software processes.
It is apparent from the foregoing that there is a need for a way to monitor the states of many software processes residing in various instruments. It would be beneficial if the states could be visually displayed in real time. Furthermore, it would be desirable that some software processes could be monitored in more detail than just whether the software processes are busy or idle.